Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Today saw the last Nintendo Direct dedicated to Smash Bros. and with it, I believe, the final additional fighters available as Downloadable Content for the Wii U/3DS version of the game.

This latest iteration of Smash Bros. was already the largest so far, and we've seen some exciting new characters (and old ones) added as DLC.

Cloud is obviously one of the most iconic video game characters of all time, despite starring in only one game (though there was a spin-off and an animated film, and a high-profile remake coming soon.) He's the main character of Final Fantasy VII, which is probably the most popular entry in the series.

Bayonetta is the star of a somewhat younger series of action games, a witch who can manipulate time and fights with four guns - one in each hand and one on each foot.

Corrin... I have no idea who Corrin is. Nintendo seems to like to push Fire Emblem characters almost as much as Pokemon.

Anyway, Cloud and his associated Midgar stage will be available tonight, while it appears that Bayonetta is getting her own stage some time later.

With this being the last Nintendo Direct, it might mean that these will be the final additions to the lineup. My response? "Snake? Snake! SNNNAAAAAKKKKEEE!"

Despite the existence of some high-profile Wii U titles in the works and the fact that the Wii U is only a couple years old, Nintendo has already started talking about their next console, currently codenamed as the NX. Granted, talking about it doesn't mean that it's coming out anytime soon. The Xbox One and PS4 are only about a year old at this point, so I don't think we're racing toward the next generation just yet (especially given how long the PS3 and Xbox 360 generations lasted,) so I wonder if Nintendo is trying to beef up their specs to handle the kind of games that Sony and Microsoft's consoles can.

Anyway, Smash Bros. has become one of the big Nintendo franchises that kind of has to have an entry for each console. If the NX comes out any time soon (meaning the next three years,) it's likely we'll see another Smash Bros. as well.